Overall happiness and satisfaction with life tend to increase with age, but a person’s well-being depends on when he or she was born, U.S. researchers say.

Angelina R. Sutin of the Florida State University College of Medicine conducted the study while at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. Sutin and colleagues used two large-scale longitudinal studies — the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for those age 30 and older.

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The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, found those born in the early part of the 20th century, who lived through the Great Depression, had substantially a lower level of well-being than cohorts who grew up during more prosperous times.